WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE DO
CORE Leadership Initiative is a 501(c)(3) organization. Our programs offer an innovative conceptual framework and strategy for helping people break out of destructive, often-generational attitudes and behaviors. This model was developed by CLI’s founder, Danette Baird. Based on well-researched and evidence-based best practices, the CORE paradigm begins with one’s center (or CORE) and builds from the inside out. It promotes centeredness, character and integrity, effective leadership beginning with oneself, community, creativity, and excellence in academic and other pursuits. The CORE curriculum/process focuses on helping people integrate the paradigm’s seven key principles.
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Our work is grounded in the following statements:
Purpose Statement: To transform communities through empowering individual, families and groups to connect with their true identity and effectively lead their own lives, so they can experience holistic wellness and promote cultural renewal.
Mission Statement: The mission of CORE Leadership Initiative is to transform communities through empowering individuals, families and groups to develop a healthy self-identity, experience holistic wellness, and promote cultural renewal. As a result, participants will more readily recognize their inherent value, break out of destructive patterns, and achieve higher academic and vocational success. These ends will be achieved through the provision of education and training, mentorship, supportive communities and leadership development.
Vision Statement: To become a national leader in promoting positive transformation in family, educational, business and civic arenas.
Danette Baird, Founder and CEO
Danette Baird, M.A., is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Psychotherapist in mental health, behavioral health, addictions and related fields. She has more than 25 years of experience providing therapy, education and consultation in a range of areas, including criminal justice. In this context she has written curriculum and provided counseling for prisoners in both individual and group settings. In recent years Danette has been challenged to use her clinical insight and experience in ways that can have an impact on the broader culture. “I feel like I’ve been trying to save the world one fish at a time, and yet I’m throwing them back into a polluted ocean—the culture,” she says. “I am deeply passionate about impacting our culture at a paradigm-shift level."